Former Runaways Bassist Jackie Fuchs Alleges She Was Raped By Manager Kim Fowley

Over the years we've heard the stories of '70s teen girl group The Runaways and their manager Kim Fowley via interviews and even a movie, but a truly unsettling tale has been revealed by former bassist Jackie Fuchs (stage name Fox, pictured in red top above) in a story at Huffington Post, as Fuchs claimed she was raped by Fowley while some of her bandmates watched on.

According to the account, Fowley and the band were celebrating at a hotel after completing a New Year's Eve show. She was approached by a roadie who had told her to take some Quaaludes, no questions asked. Before long, the bassist remembers laying down and hearing Fowley offer others to have sex with her.

“You don’t know what terror is until you realize something bad is about to happen to you and you can’t move a muscle,” said Fuchs, who was 16 at the time of the incident. “I can’t move. I can’t speak. All I can do is look him in the eye and do the best I can do to communicate: Please say no. ... I don’t know what it looked like from the outside. But I know what was going on inside and it was horror."

In her account, she adds that she slipped in and out of consciousness as Fowley raped her and people watched on and stated that her last memory of the night was seeing the faces of Joan Jett and Cherie Currie staring at her. In the story, it's mentioned that Currie spoke up before leaving the room, and that nobody called the police as they were all intimidated by Fowley.

In a statement to Yahoo Music, Jett offered, "Anyone who truly knows me understands that if I was aware of a friend or bandmate being violated, I would not stand by while it happened. For a group of young teenagers thrust into '70s rock stardom there were relationships that were bizarre, but I was not aware of this incident. Obviously Jackie’s story is extremely upsetting and although we haven’t spoken in decades, I wish her peace and healing."

The bassist remained with the band until 1977, though the assault was never brought up. Currie stated that the unspoken rule was "you forget it and you move on." She added, "I pushed it out of my mind the best that I could."

For years, Fuchs stayed quiet about the assault, but in recent years decided to confront Fowley. She says her goal was to get her onetime manager to acknowledge the wrong-doing, but she never got the chance to have a meeting with Fowley as he first ignored her emails and calls and passed away earlier this year from bladder cancer.

Update: Cherie Currie has responded to the Jackie Fuchs story in a series of Facebook posts. They read as follows: